Many parents have toyed, even fleetingly, with home schooling. The idea conjures up idyllic images of bright-eyed children and earnest parents clustered at the kitchen table, unravelling the mysteries of maths, science and languages free of the dogma and strictures of conventional education.
This week, parents have confronted a more chaotic reality — not home schooling in the usual sense, but enforced schooling-from-home. Kitchen tables strewn with books and cereal bowls; frustrated parents trying to remember how to do improper fractions while taking part in a Google Hangout with work colleagues; fights over laptops as children insist they need to log on to online lessons — such scenes will have been repeated in households across the world.
A video that went viral this week depicted the feelings of parents around the world. It showed a mother who broke after just two days of trying to marshal the schedules of her children as well as dozens of messages on WhatsApp: “If we don’t die of corona, we’ll die of distance learning,” she ranted.
Some will have taken instantly to schooling from home, pleasantly surprised at the satisfaction to be gained from teaching young minds and at their own aptitude as teachers. For others who find the whole thing a Sisyphean task, the idea that schools may be shut for months to come is daunting. Plenty more anguished emojis are to come on the class social media chats.
Home learning, as more usually understood, is not a new idea. The modern homeschool movement emerged in the 1970s, promoted by the likes of John Holt, an American teacher and education writer. He advised parents to fit the curriculum to the child’s interests, not the other way around. Its origins as a fringe pursuit belie the rising popularity of home learning.
The most recent estimates suggest that close to 60,000 children are home schooled in England, for reasons including mental health issues and special educational needs. Some parents have given up on what they see as a restrictive “one-size fits all” education system. Educationalists, including Britain’s Sir Ken Robinson, have complained that schools’ need to follow strict curriculums can suffocate children’s natural creativity. Many technology entrepreneurs, including Google founder Larry Page, have talked about their formative years attending Montessori schools, crediting them with helping to promote a sense of questioning and self-motivation.
For parents settling in for the long haul during today’s health crisis, technology is proving a lifeline. School by Google Hangouts, Microsoft Teams or Zoom has been hugely popular to keep children focused as well as connected as a class. For younger children, various British celebrities are offering their services for free to help with lessons in maths, English as well as history. An exercise class for kids from Joe Wicks, a personal trainer, attracted almost 1m live viewers one day this week.
How best to make it work? Experts say children need a clear structure. They should rise, breakfast and work according to a clear timetable in line with normal schooling, ideally studying in a place without distractions. Make the most of “live” online classes, and additional work and resources, that schools are offering. Allow time for physical exercise, and family time — and arguably less homework after studying finishes. Above all, parents should take a deep breath and keep calm. One lasting lesson many home workers-cum-home schoolers will draw from today’s crisis is this: teachers will never again have to prove that they are worth it.
